7 Best Practices for Proofreading Business Content
Clarity, consistency, and accuracy are non-negotiable when it comes to business content.
Whether it’s an email newsletter, a product description, or a blog post, a brand’s written content shapes how its audience views the business. While high-quality content builds trust, errors and inconsistencies, however small, can reduce the likelihood that prospective customers or clients continue to engage with that company or brand. As the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression – and proofreading is the key to making sure it’s a good one!
In this article, we’ll explore seven best practices for proofreading business content, whether for yourself or for a client, and explain how Knowadays can help your business reach its goals.
1. Establish a Clear Review Process
One of the most effective ways to improve the quality of your professional content is to implement a clear, structured proofreading process. While this can vary slightly depending on the length, format, and purpose of the content, there are some techniques you can apply in any scenario.
Get Ready to Proofread
The first step of the process is to set yourself up for success by getting in the right frame of mind to proofread. Start by preparing your workstation and the document itself for proofreading.
Open any resources or style guides you’ll need, and get your document ready to work on (e.g., by switching on Track Changes in Microsoft Word or Suggesting mode in Google Docs).
Eliminate the risk of distractions by switching off any nonessential alerts or notifications for a set amount of time. This is also the moment to turn on any apps or timers you use to record your working hours if necessary (many people find the Pomodoro technique helpful to manage their work time and improve focus when proofreading).
Make Multiple Passes
When proofreading, it’s helpful to make several passes on the document, focusing on a different aspect each time.
During the first pass, concentrate on the overall meaning and structure of the content, including:
- The layout of the document
- The style of headings, subheadings, and lists
- Whether there are any non-textual elements (e.g., images or tables)
- The font styles and sizes, spacing, margins, and indents
- Whether there are any hyperlinks
Once you have an idea of the overall structure, you can start to look more closely at the text on your second pass. At this stage, focus on:
- Spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Capitalization of titles, headings, names, and proper nouns
- Consistency in terminology (e.g., that acronyms and initialisms are presented the same way every time)
- Sentence structure (e.g., addressing any choppy or overly long sentences)
- Word choice and clarity (e.g., amending vague or ambiguous words or phrases)
Then, before you begin your final pass, it’s a good idea to take a break, especially when working with longer content. This helps clear your head so you can return to the document with fresh eyes, which improves your focus when looking for more subtle errors such as typos.
Check Your Comments
In some cases, you may need to leave comments in the document for the writer to review, either instead of making a direct change or to accompany an edit. When you finish proofreading, you should always review your comments to evaluate whether they are clear, correct, and necessary.
This review is best done at the end of the proofreading process when you are familiar with the content and have had time to absorb its meaning. For example, after an extra read through of the text, you could find that a direct edit is actually more helpful than a comment explaining the issue. You may even find a typo or punctuation slip-up in one of your comments, which would be embarrassing to return to the writer! Proofreading your own writing can be tricky and is best done as a separate task, after you’ve finished with the main content.
2. Use a Proofreading Checklist
One of the simplest best practices is to create a proofreading checklist to catch easily overlooked issues in business content. Even an experienced editor doesn’t rely on their memory alone to proofread, especially since business writing typically includes specialized terminology such as brand-specific phrasing or complex technical descriptions.
A checklist acts as a set of reminders for particular things to look for, beyond general errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as a way to ensure you’ve looked for every type of issue. It can comprise things you’re apt to forget, elements unique to the type of content, or subtle factors that are simply easy to overlook. You can refer back to it while you’re proofreading and work through the items at the end, checking off each one when you’re sure everything is correct.
Below are some key items to think about and include on your checklist for business content:
- Punctuation (e.g., hyphenation rules and preferences for en dashes vs. em dashes)
- Formatting, layout, and spacing
- Tone of voice and point of view (e.g., using first person vs. third person)
- Level of formality (e.g., using contractions vs. full terms)
- Capitalization in headings and the main text
- How to write out numbers (e.g., for dates, percentages, or prices)
- URLs, hyperlinks, and anchor text (including checking for broken or outdated links)
- Company-specific terminology (e.g., product names and features)
- Calls to action (e.g., their number, wording, or placement)
- Compliance factors (e.g., required wording or adherence to regulations)
- Brand style details (e.g., logos, fonts, or color schemes)
Besides ensuring your content is correct, clear, and consistent, using a proofreading checklist also shortens the time needed to finalize each piece for publication. When you know exactly what to look for, you eliminate the guesswork that can slow down the review process. Instead of rereading a page of business content multiple times hoping to catch everything, a checklist helps you move through the editorial stage more efficiently. And for a content team, it establishes a repeatable process that everyone can follow. It’s also helpful for onboarding new employees and keeping writing and marketing teams aligned and focused on the most important issues.
3. Verify All Facts and Figures
Accuracy is essential in business content, especially if your industry relies on data, statistics, or product performance claims. Even a minor inaccuracy or incorrect figure can damage your reputation and cause your audience to lose trust in your brand.
When proofreading business content, always carefully review and check the sources for:
- Dates and timelines
- Product specifications
- Pricing and discount details
- Numerical data and statistics
- Claims that require evidence
- Links and citations
- Cross-referenced content (such as references to charts, images, or earlier sections)
The important process of fact-checking is typically a separate task from proofreading, but in business settings, the two often overlap. When proofreading, you’re perfectly positioned to spot details that seem incorrect and flag them for correction or verification. For instance, you may see a statistic that is outdated or a job title that doesn’t match previous references.
It is especially important to thoroughly review and proofread any AI-generated writing a business uses. AI writing tools can help you scale content creation by producing a large volume of content in a short amount of time; however, this content is not always entirely accurate or up-to-date, and it needs human review. Sometimes, AI models can hallucinate statistics or figures to make content appear more credible, so it’s important to double-check these facts and source your own verifiable information.
4. Use a Style Guide or Style Sheet
Another key resource for proofreading business content is a brand style guide or sheet. A brand style guide outlines preferences for all the elements in business communications – such as formatting, terminology, structure, tone, and point of view – in one centralized document available to your entire team, as well as any consultants or freelancers. This streamlines content production and removes any ambiguity in the editorial process, cutting down on questions (and errors!) regarding style preferences.
A full style guide outlines a business’s rules and standards regarding:
- Tone and voice (e.g., does the brand present itself as serious, clever, funny, professional, etc.?)
- Preferred spellings
- Dialect preferences (e.g., US or UK English)
- Capitalization of titles or headings
- Hyphenation of terms
- Visual formatting
- Punctuation preferences (e.g., whether to use the Oxford comma)
- Industry-specific terminology
- Business branding
Note that if you don’t want to create a brand style guide from scratch, you can follow the guidelines of an existing style guide for business writing, such as the AP Stylebook or The Chicago Manual of Style.
For shorter pieces, you can use an abbreviated style sheet – a one-page reference document that outlines the most important points and brand details. Whichever method you choose, these resources help keep business writing consistently polished and unified across all content distribution channels.
5. Check for Consistent Brand Voice and Tone
While checking grammar and punctuation is an important step for proofreading business content, these aren’t the only elements you should be focusing on. A distinctive brand voice and clear, consistent tone are often cited by consumers as a reason why they choose to do business with a specific brand. One survey found that companies that maintain consistent branding can increase their revenue by up to 23%. Another found that improving brand loyalty by just 5% can boost a brand’s profits by up to 95%. Whether your brand voice is casual and friendly or formal and highly authoritative, it’s essential that it be recognizable to customers in every piece of content across all platforms.
Creating a brand style guide is a good way to keep your content on track; however, inconsistencies in tone can still occur, particularly when more than one writer or editor contributes to a single piece of content. This makes the proofreading stage especially important, as a careful final review can catch issues to ensure a coherent tone and voice.
A top tip when checking for consistency and style guide compliance is to use the “Find” function in Microsoft Word to search for repeat issues, such as specific spellings or capitalization of terms included in the text. To open the Find tool, press Control + F on a Windows computer or Command + F on a Mac.
6. Review Formatting and Layout
Formatting errors or inconsistencies can be just as distracting as grammatical mistakes and misspellings. When proofreading business content, perform a dedicated pass to check the formatting and layout of the content. Check for issues such as:
- Inconsistent spacing
- Misaligned headers and margins
- Uneven lists or bullet formatting
- Inconsistent font sizes or styles
- Page breaks in awkward places
Reviewing formatting and layout is also a best practice for SEO. A clear and well-structured website is more likely to land in one of the top spots in Google searches, which can significantly boost traffic to your website. Surveys report that the majority of users visit the top three websites in search engine results. These top positions capture a disproportionately high percentage of all clicks, while very few users proceed to the second page of results. Proofreading your business content for readability and ensuring clear and consistent formatting can get your website closer to one of these prime spots.
7. Proofread Your Content in Multiple Formats
Sometimes errors hide in plain sight simply because you’re too close to the content or have already reviewed it several times in a short period of time. A simple way to uncover issues you may have missed is to change how you view the document, for example, by switching from desktop to mobile view, printing a hard copy, or reading it in dark mode.
These small adjustments force your eyes to see the content differently, helping you notice spacing errors, formatting inconsistencies, odd phrasing, or typos that didn’t stand out in your initial review. This is especially true if you’re proofreading your own writing, which can be challenging even for seasoned writers and editors.
It can also help to read the content aloud (or use read-aloud software), as issues such as incorrect word order or missing letters will jump out at you when you force yourself to slow down and take in every word.
Proofreading For Professionals
Do you want to learn more about proofreading best practices for business content? Taking a proofreading course for busy professionals can help you brush up on your language skills so you can publish writing that sets your brand apart and helps you meet your marketing goals.
Check out our comprehensive Proofreading For Professionals course. It teaches you everything you need to know about proofreading professional writing, from applying common conventions for punctuation to polishing AI-generated texts so they’re ready for publication. Try two free lessons today, no strings attached, and see for yourself.
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